This page lists various possible complications after AN treatments, with
links to separate pages that provide more details. Your individual odds of having any of
the complications listed below depend on your individual AN case, as well as on
the treatment and the physician you choose. Prior to making any treatment decisions, AN patients owe it to themselves to
understand just how likely they are to have these problems after their
treatment. Here is our advice on asking your doctors the right questions.

If anyone has experienced additional symptoms, or has more information on these, they are encouraged to contact
us at ANarchive@gmail.com .

The list of complications.

Paralysis of half the face, which can mean:

difficulty eating, drinking, blinking, smiling;

Something I was not prepared for
[before surgery] is that half my throat is paralyzed, which makes eating
difficult. I choke on absolutely everything so my throat stays
irritated. My Dr. is sending me to a throat specialist next week.

Eye problems (eyes are controlled by separate nerves from the rest of
the face):

dry eye (this problem is quite
common, even in patient without any facial muscle weakness);

double vision (not a common one, caused either by
nerve impairment during surgery or by hydrocephalus
after radiosurgery)

Diminished or destroyed hearing in AN
ear (100% loss guaranteed with the translab approach)

Beware: "hearing
preservation" can either mean "preserving ALL hearing" or
"SOME hearing". Here is more.

Hyperacusis -- a painful sensitivity
to loud sounds (in the good ear)

Sudden Hearing Loss
A sudden drop in hearing level can happen to either wait-and-watch or post-radiosurgery
patients. It may be reversible if addressed immediately.

Contralateral Hearing Loss
Sudden hearing loss in the non-AN ear can happen after AN surgery. According
to a Finnish study of post-surgery complications (http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/laa/kliin/vk/levo/vestibul.pdf),
contralateral hearing loss after surgery can have immediate or delayed
onset, occuring in up to 1.3% of the patients. It might be reversible
with an immediate course of corticosteroids such as Prednisone,
preferably by injection. If your doctors don't know what to do and don't
consider steroids a good idea, don't hesitate to get more than one opinion.

Post-op meningitus develops 1-60 days post-op in about 3% of surgeries; more likely to occur after a CSF leak.

AN surgery may also result in recurrent bouts of meningitis,
when cold or ear infections may migrate into the cranial cavity and bloom into
meningitis.For those
who would prefer a sense of "closure", repacking the surgery
site with fat is a standard operation to try to take care of this problem.

Blood clots, seizures, strokes
(consequences can be serious, if not properly detected right away).

Incomplete tumor removal (not really a
complication, but it does complicate life, since your AN is more likely to come back).

Depression (usually induced by stress due to other complications; or
steroid-related).

Death

Nowadays, operative death is less common than post-op (2-69 days
later). Most common reasons are internal bleeding, blood clots,
and infections. On the average, there is somewhere around 1% risk of not
surviving surgery; your odds depend on your doctor's experience
and skill as well as your health factors. Here is what the
Michigan Ear Institute writes:

Careful
tumor dissection, with the help of an operating microscope, usually avoids
complications. If the blood supply to viral brain centers is disturbed,
serious complications may result: loss of muscle control, paralysis, even
death. In our experience death occurs rarely as the result of the removal of
small acoustic tumors and occurs in less than 1% of the larger tumors.

(Note
that this statistic is for their own outcomes only; outcomes from less
experienced surgeons will be worse).

Multiple Complications

Multiple complications are often present together, as in these stories:

I severed a 40yr friendship after my best
friend told me to "put it out of your mind and move on"! That's easy for someone
to say that doesn't deal with the problem day in and day out. Eye problems... balance
problems... tinnitus... memory problems... depression... fatigue. Day in and day out. Believe me I am no WIMP.

I had a 1.3 cm AN removed on right side 6
months ago... I still cannot work... Still have terrible headaches... they are very
frequent and sometimes very severe. I am off balance a lot... Still having trouble with
right eye... my sight is not as good as it used to be... the eye stays dry and I blink a
lot. I do not sleep very much. My hearing is lost on the right side, no functional hearing
at all... hearing aid will not help... My face is left with some facial palsy... My
smile is not the greatest... drool out the right side... But I am alive and doing alright.

I had an acoustic neuroma... surgically
removed almost five years ago. I still have slight Bell's palsy on the right side of my
face, and of course there is no hearing in my right ear. I also have spasms in my right
cheek that are quite uncomfortable... I have headaches every day. My memory isn't at all
good either since the surgery. My right eye closes when I eat, watch TV, or read lying
down. If I stretch, yawn, or move my head in a certain way, I lose the hearing in my good
ear for a few seconds. The tinnitus is still in the dead ear; can it be stopped? I don't
feel that my balance has ever returned to normal, I can't ride a bike now and have trouble
on uneven surfaces or in a dark room.

When there is a combination of many problems, or for severe cases,
Social Security Disability can become necessary. Here is a link to our
section about Social Security Disability.